iOS 7 Beta Warns Users When Using Unauthorized Lightning Cables and Accessories

[XboxMySocks]

Yes. Leave it to Cupertino to reinvent the wheel. Your concerns with generic Chinese knock offs are understood. However, I'm not much concerned considering both parts are assembled in China. And with China's complete disregard for intellectual property (combined with my disdain for expensive nonsense), I feel confident that my generic part is just as good as Apples. To each their own. I did however spend a considerable sum of money on a MacBook.

Ah you're right, the distinction is minuscule. However, the ones created by Apple are coded correctly and assembled properly, which is not even remotely guaranteed to work correctly. You'll probably end up binning them anyway and wasting more money hahahaha

 

[inlinevolvo]

Ah you're right, the distinction is minuscule. However, the ones created by Apple are coded correctly and assembled properly, which is not even remotely guaranteed to work correctly. You'll probably end up binning them anyway and wasting more money hahahaha

I've been using mine for about 4 months now. It cost me $4. Now I don't need more than one adaptor, but when you need to get 4 or 5 of these things, you are looking at triple digits going with apple. But should mine fail, I'll keep you appraised. And you can tell me "I told you so."

P.s. I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[themoffster]

I suggested this idea myself and Im glad they put it in, because I am sick to death of people buy fake Lightning cables that may not be guaranteed to work properly beyond charging and may short out the phone as well.

You need to stop playing with computers, go out, talk to women and get yourself laid

 

[lucasgladding]

As others have said, this is not new. I had a Griffin car charger that caused this message to appear every time it was plugged in. This was about 3 years ago with an iPhone 4 and iOS 5. I don't think they're crippling unofficial cables any time soon.

Beyond the need to criticize Apple for something, I don't understand why users are complaining about the notification. Perhaps it could be less intrusive (maybe something as simple as an icon in the status bar), but there are several good reasons to have it. The most obvious reason is markets where counterfeit cables are sold for the same price. I'm sure the desire to collect licensing fees fits into the design decision somewhere, but nobody can ignore the legitimate reasons for alerting users.

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I've been using mine for about 4 months now. It cost me $4. Now I don't need more than one adaptor, but when you need to get 4 or 5 of these things, you are looking at triple digits going with apple. But should mine fail, I'll keep you appraised. And you can tell me "I told you so."

P.s. I wouldn't hold my breath.

Where did you get the cables? I'm looking for some, but keep seeing them for $10+.

 

[epphllps]

My Maxboost defender battery case no longer works. Worked on ios 6, but now I get the not supported warning. Pretty lame. Anyone else have this issue with a battery case?

 

[ArmCortexA8]

I'll tell you why. Money. If it was one cable, it's not an issue. But Here is what I buy (for mine and my wife's phones) :
2x primary charging area in the house
2x computers to sync / charge (although becoming less needed, but are now used mostly in the brief case to carry when I visit clients)
3x one for each car
2x for the office

Learn to manage what you use and where, you don't need a cable every single location - learn to take a cable or two with you, its ridiculous no wonder its costing you a fortune. I have two cables in total (genuine) and I take an iPhone power supply and Lightning cable with me everywhere thats is. I would not have a cable at every single location. I use the same cable for my iPhone and iPod touch and synching and charging - one cable not 9. Learn to use one or two cables max for everything (yourself and wife) and organise things better, not tell Apple to make cables cheaper because it appears you don't use an organised method which is costing you a fortune. Your own "convenience" is causing this expense.

 

[terraphantm]

Good, should make some users think twice about buying a $1.99 cable that might fry their device, or burn down their house.

You paid $400+ for your device, a $20 cable is hardly being robbed.

Apple cables are notoriously fragile. You're not getting $20 quality with their cables. So why not buy the cheapies? You can get 10 for the same price, and they'll likely each work as long or longer

 

[hchung]

In the decades I have been using electronic devices, I've never had a device fail because of a third party cable.

Then either you don't have enough experience with electronic devices, or luckily managed to get 3rd party cables which were reasonably well-made.

I've had connectors melt because the wires used were too thin to carry the current expected.
I've seen connectors deformed because crappy microUSB were manufactured slightly larger. People tried forcing them in because they thought the resistance was from the retention clips, not the connector deforming.
I've had connector parts break off in other connectors, leaving metal pieces shorting the lines.

At those power levels, how? Can you provide details as to how this would occur?

At the voltage and current levels seen over a USB port, you can easily damage electronics circuits. Let's start with basic examples.

USB's 5V 500ma mode is past the rated spec for basic LEDs.
USB's 5V 500ma mode is also much higher than the charge current for a bluetooth headset's lithium battery, putting you in "my battery set on fire" danger zone should regulation fail.
The venerable 2n2222 transistor can get burnt over 1 amp, so that'd take a higher wattage USB charger, but still much less than the 2 amps of the iPad charger.
Electromigration can open efuses at half the voltage of a USB port, and also less current.

Want to know more? Most people know USB's power lines at 5V.
But most people don't know that the data lines max out at 3.3V.
A USB transceiver typically has two power inputs: One for 5V for power, and then another for 3.3V-3.6V to drive the IO/data lines.
Sure each power input can take a little more than their normally expected voltage level.... but the specsheets happen to tell you how much more.
I've seen specsheets where the 3.3v lines have a max limit of 4.6v. So there's actually a lot of USB transceivers where if you accidentally short the 5V to the 3.3V lines, you'll fry it because 5 is bigger than 4.6.
And guess what two terminals are next to each other on USB connectors.

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tusb2551.pdf
http://pdf.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheet/philips/ISP1106W.pdf
Open the PDF, search "absolute maximum" and then look at VCC-IO.

 

[terraphantm]

Then either you don't have enough experience with electronic devices, or luckily managed to get 3rd party cables which were reasonably well-made.

I've had connectors melt because the wires used were too thin to carry the current expected.
I've seen connectors deformed because crappy microUSB were manufactured slightly larger. People tried forcing them in because they thought the resistance was from the retention clips, not the connector deforming.
I've had connector parts break off in other connectors, leaving metal pieces shorting the lines.



At the voltage and current levels seen over a USB port, you can easily damage electronics circuits. Let's start with basic examples.

USB's 5V 500ma mode is past the rated spec for basic LEDs.
USB's 5V 500ma mode is also much higher than the charge current for a bluetooth headset's lithium battery, putting you in "my battery set on fire" danger zone should regulation fail.
The venerable 2n2222 transistor can get burnt over 1 amp, so that'd take a higher wattage USB charger, but still much less than the 2 amps of the iPad charger.
Electromigration can open efuses at half the voltage of a USB port, and also less current.

Want to know more? Most people know USB's power lines at 5V.
But most people don't know that the data lines max out at 3.3V.
A USB transceiver typically has two power inputs: One for 5V for power, and then another for 3.3V-3.6V to drive the IO/data lines.
Sure each power input can take a little more than their normally expected voltage level.... but the specsheets happen to tell you how much more.
I've seen specsheets where the 3.3v lines have a max limit of 4.6v. So there's actually a lot of USB transceivers where if you accidentally short the 5V to the 3.3V lines, you'll fry it because 5 is bigger than 4.6.
And guess what two terminals are next to each other on USB connectors.

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tusb2551.pdf
http://pdf.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheet/philips/ISP1106W.pdf
Open the PDF, search "absolute maximum" and then look at VCC-IO.

I don't know why one would hook up an LED directly to a USB cable.
for charging, the current drawn will depend on the charge level of the battery. Having excess current available doesn't mean it gets forced into the battery -- otherwise you couldn't use an iPad charger on an iPhone, nor could you plug in anything less into the 10-20A breakers of your house.
so what if a 2n2222 transistor can get burnt over 1 amp? It's not hard to limit current.
It really should go without saying that the likelyhood of observing electronmigration due to the freaking USB cable is astronomically low. I assure you that Apple's engineers know the basics of electronic design -- they certainly take into account that input voltage will likely fluctuate when designing the CPU power circuitry

It's really not that hard to make a decent quality cable. It can certainly be done for less than the $20 Apple wants, and at better quality. Even a crappy one probably will not have power wires hooked up to the data lines.


You strike me as the type of person who has a little bit of knowledge, but doesn't actually know what the implications are.

 

[gnasher729]

Yes, because everyone who buys cheaper cables understands the risks.

Not everyone buying rubbish cables actually bought cheap cables

You buy an "original Apple" cable at a price that would be good if it was in fact original, plug it in your phone, get this warning, go back to the seller and find he has gone to find mugs like you elsewhere

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I think you will be pleasantly surprised how a Hyundai genesis can smack a few of porches offerings...

If you buy a car with a "porche" sticker I can guarantee it's just as fake as your Rolox watch

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Yes. Leave it to Cupertino to reinvent the wheel. Your concerns with generic Chinese knock offs are understood. However, I'm not much concerned considering both parts are assembled in China. And with China's complete disregard for intellectual property (combined with my disdain for expensive nonsense), I feel confident that my generic part is just as good as Apples. To each their own. I did however spend a considerable sum of money on a MacBook.

If they sell you a cheap part, and they know you wont come to China to complain if it doesn't work, why would they make a quality cable? The cost of building a good cable isn't just the design which can be copied; actually making it is expensive too.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Good, should make some users think twice about buying a $1.99 cable that might fry their device, or burn down their house.

You paid $400+ for your device, a $20 cable is hardly being robbed.

Out of all the technology that's worth $400 in an iPhone, there's no way that a cable is worth 5% of that.

 

[saha-med]

Well I've seen a similar warning on a 3GS and 4S so I don't know what the big deal is as it's not some wonderful new feature in iOS 7

U've got to be kidding me. My 3 years of using tons of "unauthorized" cables with my IP4 hasnt shown me any warnings.

Im surprised that such a warning system exist

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Apple cables are notoriously fragile. You're not getting $20 quality with their cables. So why not buy the cheapies? You can get 10 for the same price, and they'll likely each work as long or longer

EVERY Apple cable I've ever owned has lasted the lifespan of the device. You must be holding it wrong.

 

[lucasgladding]

U've got to be kidding me. My 3 years of using tons of "unauthorized" cables with my IP4 hasnt shown me any warnings.

Just because it's unauthorized doesn't mean you'll see this warning. If you didn't get the warning under iOS 6, I suspect won't get it under iOS 7 either. The warning isn't new, though I suppose they could have made the check more thorough.

 

[parish]

U've got to be kidding me. My 3 years of using tons of "unauthorized" cables with my IP4 hasnt shown me any warnings.

Im surprised that such a warning system exist

Nope, no kidding. It was a battery charger for the cigarette lighter in the car bought off fleabay

 

[Nickpocalypse]

I disagree to a certain extent. When I was maybe 13, I bought a cord and adapter for my ipod touch 3g. Within a few months, my accelerameter (however you spell it...) quit working. I'd assume due to those things.

While every time a cord is plugged in is too much, they at least should be warned.

I agree with you, this is what the rest of my post you quoted went on to say.

We're on the same page

 

[bkribbs]

I agree with you, this is what the rest of my post you quoted went on to say.

We're on the same page

My apologies then! Glad we agree!

 

[CylonGlitch]

Your own "convenience" is causing this expense.

But is there any reason they can't produce a CHARGE only cable? Seriously, am I the only one who sees this as a viable product? Most people I know don't sync that often, but want to charge everywhere.

Yes, I know I don't need so many cables, but it makes my life easier. Yes it is expensive, and not necessary. Do I wish it to be cheaper, sure, but I'll deal with the price.

 

[Alchemis]

What eggs me most about this is that I have several non-gen cables at different places, car, home, work etc and now with 7 installed it is actually draining the battery with these cables plugged in whereas they used to charge it. Apple really lose some points here!

 

[VoR]

But is there any reason they can't produce a CHARGE only cable? Seriously, am I the only one who sees this as a viable product? Most people I know don't sync that often, but want to charge everywhere.

There's no reason they couldn't, but I don't think it would be viable - What's the point in it? Why would I spend $10 on a 'cheap, branded charge-only' cable when I could get 5x full featured 3rd party cables?

I'm still using the 30pin connector, I don't think I've ever bought a cable that hasn't been better quality than apple's - Their strain relief is pretty poor quality, especially considering the connector naturally wants/needs you to pull it out by the cable itself.

 

[bkribbs]

Similar to the concept of not knowing when generic cords are ok, can I get a generic USB Ethernet adapter for my Mac?

 

[thisisdallas]

I see this same message in iOS 6 with my knockoff lightning cable, from time to time.

I don't think this is new for iOS7.

Yeah, the notification itself isn't new, but the fact that you can dismiss it and allow the charger to continue to work is new. In iOS 6, my knockoff lightning cable always completely quit working after about 4 minutes of charging.

 

[APlotdevice]

There's no reason they couldn't, but I don't think it would be viable - What's the point in it? Why would I spend $10 on a 'cheap, branded charge-only' cable when I could get 5x full featured 3rd party cables?

I'm still using the 30pin connector, I don't think I've ever bought a cable that hasn't been better quality than apple's - Their strain relief is pretty poor quality, especially considering the connector naturally wants/needs you to pull it out by the cable itself.

I've never had to put it out by the cable. If for some reason you have trouble gripping the connector, just slide your nail into the gap between it and your device.

 

[hchung]

I don't know why one would hook up an LED directly to a USB cable.
for charging, the current drawn will depend on the charge level of the battery. Having excess current available doesn't mean it gets forced into the battery -- otherwise you couldn't use an iPad charger on an iPhone, nor could you plug in anything less into the 10-20A breakers of your house.
so what if a 2n2222 transistor can get burnt over 1 amp? It's not hard to limit current.
It really should go without saying that the likelyhood of observing electronmigration due to the freaking USB cable is astronomically low. I assure you that Apple's engineers know the basics of electronic design -- they certainly take into account that input voltage will likely fluctuate when designing the CPU power circuitry

It's really not that hard to make a decent quality cable. It can certainly be done for less than the $20 Apple wants, and at better quality. Even a crappy one probably will not have power wires hooked up to the data lines.

You strike me as the type of person who has a little bit of knowledge, but doesn't actually know what the implications are.

The simple discrete components were mentioned only to bring in basic voltage/current levels an electronics hobbyist might understand. The question was whether or not the power levels seen at a USB port is enough to damage electronics. Many people don't think so, because they have no familiarity with electronic circuits in general.

I said that electromigration can be observed at voltage/current levels that can be observed at a USB port. Not due to the cable. And the CPU power regulation wouldn't even be directly connected to the USB port. If you misunderstand me, it doesn't make me incorrect.

Besides, the problem isn't about making a decent quality cable; it's about making a decent quality CONNECTOR.

 

[terraphantm]

My understanding is that electromigration is only a practical concern with modern ICs. With everything else (I would imagine even cheap cables), there is enough metal to not worry about it.

Realistically, the connector would have to be really badly made for anything else to go that wrong. The most common problem I've seen was poor soldering at the dock end. But that was in the $0.50 cables. Step it up to ~$5, and they're better made than the apple cables. Better rubber and better reliefs. If the actual electrical part is not up to the same standard, then the difference is not enough to cause a problem.